Effects Of Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream

In the play A Midsummer’s Night Dream by William Shakespeare, many of the characters relentlessly pursue their goals in the face of illogical decisions, and, while fictional items such as the “love-in-idleness” flower are used to explain the character’s sudden love for each other, the play does illustrate how love and ambition can lead to unforeseen consequences. For example, when Puck accidently anointed Lysander’s eyes with the “love-in-idleness” juice, he started a chain of events leading to Lysander and Demetrius fighting over Helena while Hermia is treated as though she is worthless. Moreover, at one point, Lysander and Demetrius even threatened to duel each other when Lysander awoke after being anointed with the flower 's juice and said, "Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word is that vile name to perish on my sword" (61). This shows how the character’s love for certain other characters, and their ambition to pursue said love, can lead to the destruction of previous relationships and lead them to make dangerous decisions.

he had Puck drug them for his enjoyment and to help out Helena who he takes pity on. He takes pity on her because no one loves her, and because he feels bad about Demetrius brushing her off. Lysander, Demetrius, Helena, and Hermia have a crazy and complicated love square that gets even more complicated throughout the play. Being crazy in love is a major theme of A Midsummer Night’s dream by Shakespeare. This is shown by many characters throughout the play.

In William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream the circumstances surrounding love have been put into question, this occurs when a magical nectar is put in the eyes of three major characters, and changes their feelings towards the people in their lives. Titania, Lysander and Demetrius all have had the nectar put into their eyes, though Demetrius avoids having this done to him in act 2 scene 2 which is the scene that the focus of this paper will be looking at. Throughout the play, we focus largely on the love life of Helena, which unfortunately does not seem to exist. She is in love with Demetrius, whom does not care for her in the same way, he does not cherish her at all before he is under the influence of magic. Once Lysander declares

Love is a complicated emotion that can offer us enormous happiness and joy, yet can also be full of difficulties and problems, requiring our patience, understanding, and forgiveness. In “A Midsummer Night's Dream”, Shakespeare displays romantic relationships between lovers as a difficult journey, where the interference of others can be like a detour that takes us off course, emotional challenges that can be like a steep hill that we must climb to reach our destinations, and forbidden love that can be like a forbidden move that we cannot resist but may lead us to a perfect performance. Shakespeare demonstrates that while no relationship is perfect, with effort and commitment, any relationship can succeed. In addition, the interference of people

Helena, one of the main characters of this Shakespearean comedy, expresses her thoughts on love through a soliloquy. This soliloquy is written in verse and in “iambic pentameter” - five unaccented syllables, each followed by an accented one - as the rest of the play is, but with the characteristic that it rhymes. The soliloquy is composed of “heroic couplets” - rhyming verse in iambic pentameter- in opposition to “blank verse” - unrhymed iambic pentameter- which is the predominant type of verse in the play. Helena’s soliloquy, formed, as mentioned before, by heroic couplets, follows the rhyme scheme AABBCC as can be seen in this extract: “Things base and vile, folding no quantity, (A)
Love can transpose to form and dignity: (A)
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; (B)
 And therefore is wing 'd Cupid painted blind: (B)


  Lysander compares himself to Demetrius, saying that he is equal to him in every way.   Lysander then points out that he has something Demetrius will never have, Hermia 's love.   He makes it clear that the couple will do anything to be together.   After Egeus denounces his daughter 's chosen love, Hermia and Lysander,

In our scene, lines 42-179 of Act One, Scene One, the characters who try to force love upon others are seen antagonistically, while Hermia and Lysander, who strive for true, naturally occurring love, are seen as protagonists whose love should be defended. The overlying message of the play is that love should not and cannot be forced. Theseus, Egeus, and Demetrius use their power, both as nobles and men, to try and force Hermia into marrying Demetrius. Egeus, in an attempt to bully Hermia into marrying Demetrius says, ‘‘‘She is mine, and all my right of her I do estate unto Demetrius’’’ (1.1.97-98). He sees his power as Hermia’s father as a way to force her into a marriage that will benefit him.

  In addition, Hermia 's childhood best friend and Demetrius were in love prior to his sights turning towards Hermia.   This crushed Helena, causing her to lose self-confidence, but still: she yearns for Demetrius 's reciprocated love.   Lysander and Hermia are in love with each other.   Egeus does not approve of his daughter 's chosen love.

Dreams are wild, magical, and mysterious. The majority of Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream is spent in a heavily wooded forest full of fairies and irrational young lovers, creating a night only fallible as a dream. The story contains a royal wedding about to take place and the young lovers Hermia and Lysander provoked to eloping because Hermia’s father will only let her marry Demetrius. Hermia’s best friend Helena, who loves Demetrius, tells Demetrius Hermia and Lysander’s plot to escape to the forest nearby so that she may follow him. Local townsmen also decide to meet in the forest to rehearse for a play to be performed at the royal wedding.

In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream the sexes are portrayed in many different ways through many different characters. Though the sexes are portrayed in many different ways, there is one view that is repeated twice. This view is that of a dominant male figure. This view is showed through the characters of Theseus and Hippolyta and also through the characters of Hermia and Egeus. Both of these relationships are dynamic, yet they are both still based on the idea of a dominant male figure.

Unconditional love is a prevalent theme in A Midsummer Night 's Dream, and the blind nature of this love can be a great thing, especially since ignoring a romantic partner’s flaws can lead to a happier relationship. However, in A Midsummer Night 's Dream, Shakespeare takes his characters’ love to an irrational extent - so much so, that a prevalent theme of the play is the foolishness and folly of love. Context After being enchanted by Oberon’s love potion, Titania is awoken by Bottom, who she then falls madly in love with. She starts swearing her to love to him, to which Bottom responds: Analysis

What is Hermia Like? She is described as an independent individual who wants nothing but to follow her heart, but here’s the catch… That is not what her dad wants for her! She is better yet characterized as Feisty;She knows what she wants and does what it takes to get it, she was even prepared to give up on her family and way of life to marry Lysander. In this play she can be Defensive (Compelled to fight for her love and was willing to fight her friend) “

Even though Demetrius rejects her attempts to woo him, she simply replies: “Run when you will. The story shall be changed: / Apollo flies and Daphne holds the chase….” (2.1.237-38). Demetrius tries to be rid of her because this role reversal makes him feel uncomfortable. Demetrius believes in a more traditional pursuit, like him chasing Hermia, as opposed to having Helena follow him around.

Despite popular opinion, love at first sight does not exist. The idea of “love” is widely misinterpreted as a mere attraction between two individuals. However, many do not understand that love goes much further than this, and what follows is a common misconception between love and lust. Shakespeare in his 17th century play Twelfth Night delves deeper into this idea of love. He presents the character Duke Orsino who appear to be infatuated and love-sick for the Countess Olivia, a woman with which he knows little about.

There love suddenly shifts to Helena who thinks that she is getting mocked. “She cannot take advantage of it because she assumes that she is the butt of a joke.” (Garner) “Shakespeare explores how people tend to fall in love with those who appear beautiful to them. People we think we love at one time in our lives can later seem not only unattractive but even repellent. For a time, this attraction to beauty might appear to be love at its most intense, but one of the ideas of the play is that real love is much more than mere physical attraction.”